Should We Legalize Something That Causes 300K ER Visits Every Year?

While marijuana may be a factor in some accident deaths, there is no evidence that it is a significant factor when compared with other substances, such as alcohol … or dog bites.

We often overlook things we don’t want to see, so when we debate public policies, we can be misled by not knowing the context. Consequently, when we hear about the harms associated with something we may want to outlaw it.

For example, there is something that caused 6,323 hospital admissions in 2017 with a mean age of 6.63 years. Almost one third underwent a surgical procedure. Open wounds of the head, neck and trunk were the most common injury and decreased in prevalence with increasing age. Open wounds of the extremities were the second most common and the prevalence increased with increasing age. Children aged 1–4 and 5–10 years were both more than three times more likely to be admitted than those more than age 11. Think of the children!

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